Finwë and Míriel
Finwë is the first King of the Noldor Elves; he leads his people on the journey from Middle-earth to Valinor in the blessed realm of Aman.
His first wife is Míriel, who, uniquely among immortal Elves, dies while giving birth to their only child Fëanor, creator of the Silmarils; her spirit later serves the godlike Vala queen Vairë.
They have remarked that Míriel was extremely skilful in craftsmanship, and passed on her skill to her son Fëanor, whose other name, Curufinwë, means "Skill-Finwë" in one of Tolkien's constructed languages, Quenya.
Among the Elves who first awoke at Cuiviénen, a bay on the Sea of Helcar in the East of Middle-earth, the Noldor are the "Deep-Elves", always interested in knowledge, skill, and understanding; their leader is Finwë.
Míriel gives birth to their only child, Curufinwë, commonly called Fëanor; he inherits her skill, becoming the most gifted and brilliant of all the Noldor, the mightiest in crafts, especially the making of jewels.
[T 3][T 4][T 5] During the Dark Lord Melkor's attempt to corrupt the Noldor, Finwë tries to exert a moderating influence over his people and lead them back to the Valar.
She chooses to become an eternal assistant to Vairë, the weaver of the godlike Valar: she helps to weave the tapestries of time for the duration of the world's existence.
[8] The poet and essayist Melanie Rawls writes that Fëanor's consuming nature, always taking things in, is "a negative-feminine trait", implying a disharmony of the genders.
[9] Flieger writes that his fire then drives his creativity, making the beautiful letters of the Fëanorian script, and jewels, including, fatefully, the Silmarils.
Firstly, he uses the word "subtle", by etymology from Latin sub-tela, "under the warp (of a weaving)", hence the crosswise weft threads that go against the grain, a dangerous part of the fabric of life.
[11][6] Tolkien mentions in a letter "a strange case of an Elf (Míriel mother of Fëanor) that tried to die, which had disastrous results, leading to the 'Fall' of the High-elves"; he discusses it in the context of the Fall of Man.
However, he notes that Morgoth had already worked his evil on the Elves when they were still at Cuiviénen, where they first awakened, in the east of Middle-earth, sowing "the seeds of despair"; this might, he suggests, have contributed to Míriel's loss of hope.
'"[T 5] Fontenot notes that Tolkien's drafts differ widely in how long Míriel lives after Fëanor's birth, and hence in whether she can influence his ill humour directly.
[4][5] The scholar of religion Amelia Rutledge identifies what she calls Pauline constructs (like the language used by Paul the Apostle in the Bible) in the legalistic wording relating to the tale of Finwë and Míriel.
